Abstract
Indocyanine green (ICG) is a fluorescent dye that has been used in some medical specialties
already for almost 60 years and has gained popularity in recent years due to the clinical
applications recently proposed in the surgical field. This review article details
the current use of the ICG in the minimally invasive gastrointestinal surgery. There
is abundant evidence validating the usefulness of ICG fluorescence angiography in
the gastrointestinal surgery, leading to a decrease of complications. Other uses,
such as its lymphographic use for sentinel lymph node mapping or detection of metastatic
lymph nodes, need further investigation to prove its benefit. The heterogeneity and
subjective nature of the data remain the greatest challenge when analyzing the possible
effects ICG can bring to the gastrointestinal surgery.
Keywords
indocyanine green - ICG - fluorescence imaging
